Piolo and Sarah’s ‘Breakup’ drama is as real as it gets

PASCUAL AND GERONIMO. Perfect dramatic synergy.

Many of us have cried over past loves that we thought were worth fighting for—and those that are never meant to be. Director Dan Villegas and screenwriter Antoinette Jadaone’s satisfying “The Breakup Playlist,” starring the appropriately cast Piolo Pascual and Sarah Geronimo, transports you back to vulnerable moments in your life when your stubborn heart refused to listen to what your mind was saying.

As local romantic films go, you won’t find anything more heart-warming and heartbreaking this season. Villegas creates a music-enhanced, catharsis-inducing romantic nail-biter that urgently captures the highs and lows of loving, and the compromises lovers make to stay together.

Former bandmates, Gino Avila (Pascual) and Trixie David (Geronimo), are called in to help coach hot-to-trot performing duo, Joshua (Diego Loyzaga) and Janine (Maris Racal)—but, their difficult breakup three years ago is making it hard for Gino and Trixie to get things done.

Carefully calibrated to play well to its lead actors’ strengths, the movie takes a nonlinear narrative approach as it follows the couple’s ill-fated love story over a six-year period, and what they do after they miss their initial shot at Happily-Ever-After. Can love conquer their differences?

Reluctant but gifted    

Gino isn’t all that talented—but, he knows how to turn on the charm to stay in the business and get what he wants. He finds his ticket to the big time when he meets Trixie, the reluctant but gifted singer who falls for him after he relentlessly pursues her to join his band and become his trophy girlfriend.

But, professional jealousy rears its ugly head when Trixie gets the accolades Gino wants for himself—her success makes him feel like a failure! Moreover, he refuses to play second-fiddle to the rising star he has created! Is his ambition bigger than his love for the woman who adores him?

Delivering two of the finest portrayals we’ve seen this year, Geronimo and Pascual work in perfect dramatic synergy as they summon up the vulnerability and pathos their characters require. Sarah cleverly does away with her usual giggly and giddily knee-jerk acting style.

As a result, she comes off with her most textured performance to date. Her well-limned portrayal here as a woman who finds herself falling in love, and later comes to grips with the betrayal of the man whose love she thought she could never do without, is as good as it gets.

Piolo also evinces growth as an actor. Yes, his pa-kilig tricks in the production’s kwela rom-com moments come in handy, but the dashing actor now uses them more judiciously.

By wearing his wary heart on his sleeve, he captures the palpable melancholy and discombobulating dilemma of a man traipsing the treacherously fine line that separates his life-long ambition and the love of the self-effacing woman—who unwittingly threatens to take his dreams away!